Laurent Mekies rarely hands his rivals a free compliment, and Red Bull do not usually finish an American weekend talking about anybody else’s pace. On Sunday in Austin, both things happened.
Mekies, extended as Red Bull team principal and CEO through 2031 earlier this month, told reporters that Mercedes simply had the faster car, and that none of the usual escape routes applied.
“I think Kimi had more pace than us today. I don’t think we can use any excuse of tyres or of strategy. I think Kimi was faster than us today. Fair play, and well done to him.”
Max Verstappen finished third, passed by Charles Leclerc in the closing stages after an afternoon in which Red Bull split their strategy and still had no answer to the Mercedes up front. Andrea Kimi Antonelli crossed the line 13 seconds clear for his ninth win of 2026.
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Austin ended Red Bull’s title defence
The admission matters because of what it confirms about the rest of the season. Mekies acknowledged that Red Bull had failed to extract its usual edge on the softer compounds, suffering high degradation on Verstappen’s soft runs. He also made clear the gap is not closing in time.
“On one side, I’m confident that we will continue to reduce the gap to the competition from now to the end of the year, because every race we learn, every race we come up with small ways to close the gap. On the other side, I equally know that we will not be the benchmark before the end of the season, that it will require some significant design and hardware changes, and that this is something that we will see only next year.”
Red Bull were mathematically eliminated from the drivers’ championship fight in Austin. The team now spends the final rounds developing for 2027 while Mercedes closes out a title.
Antonelli two points away from history
Antonelli leads George Russell by 123 points in the drivers’ standings after Austin, with Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen and Leclerc all mathematically still alive but needing a near-miracle sequence of results to overturn the gap.
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The arithmetic at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is simpler than it looks. Antonelli needs two points. A ninth-place finish in Mexico City is enough to clinch the title regardless of what Russell or anyone else does, as several outlets have laid out ahead of the race.
If he does it, Antonelli will be 20 years, 2 months and 7 days old on race day. Sebastian Vettel was 23 years and 134 days when he took his first title in Abu Dhabi in 2010. That record, intact for 16 seasons, is six days away.
Lights out at 2pm local time in Mexico City
The 71-lap Mexico City Grand Prix starts at 2pm local time on Sunday, 1 November. It is the 19th round of 24 on the 2026 calendar.
Mercedes has not had to manage a championship-decider weekend like this since Hamilton’s seventh title in 2020.
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